


Coming Home

by AlexOblivion



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Babies, F/M, Falling In Love, Fluff, Kisses, Living Together, Realizing you're in love, Slow Burn, Sokka/Suki break up, Tokka - Freeform, after the war, background kataang, break ups, peaceful love, previous Suki/Sokka, slow realizations, very little angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-19 18:09:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19361968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexOblivion/pseuds/AlexOblivion
Summary: A peaceful, drifting Tokka piece. Snippets of how they get together and how they both find a home in one another.





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> I love peaceful romances :)   
> \- AO

There were only four people in the room the night Toph Bei Fong delivered her first baby, and none of those four were her mother. Katara acted as her midwife, using her healing water bending and calm strength to urge Toph along. Aang ran errands and stayed endlessly cheerful, often finding something else to do when his encouragement got a bit much and Toph threatened him. Sokka sat beside her head, holding her hand and refusing to look anywhere near her bottom half. He asked her at one point if she was sure if she wanted him there. 

“If you try to leave I will bend you into that wall,” she growled, sweat sticking her loose hair to her face. He rolled his eyes but stayed where he was and didn’t ask again. When the baby’s squall echoed around the room Sokka was the one who reached for her while Katara cut the cord and Toph lay back on the bed, sweating and panting. 

“Sokka?” Toph asked, breathless but anxious. 

Somehow he knew what she was asking. “She’s perfect, Toph. Ten fingers, ten toes, green eyes. Your hair. Perfect.” 

Toph’s shoulders relaxed and she smiled. “Good.” She reached her arms out and Sokka touched the baby down into them so she could get a sense of where the little bundle was. Instead of picking her up, like Sokka thought she would, Toph ran her fingers all over the little girl’s face and head, as if she was mapping her. Then she took hold of her baby and cuddled her into her arms. 

It was so sweet a picture that Sokka couldn’t resist leaning over and kissing Toph on the forehead. To his eternal surprise she just smiled up at him, no threats or anything. 

*

When Sokka and Suki split up it was a lot more amicable than he had expected. They just… grew apart over the years. They didn’t spend enough time in the same place, with her travelling with Fire Lord Zuko and Sokka dedicated to Republic City. They had fought over some silly thing, like what to get for dinner or something, and then there had been a moment of quiet in the middle of it and they had just stared at each other over their dining table. 

“This isn’t going to work, is it?” Suki asked, her voice quiet. Sokka sight and brushed a hand over his wolf’s tail. 

“I think… we’re just too different now. Maybe when we were kids, but…” 

She hurried to agree with him. “Yeah. I still love you, Sokka, I do, but it’s just not the same anymore.” 

As much as it hurt he knew exactly what she meant. “It feels like we’re roommates, doesn’t it.” 

She nodded and bit her lip, struggling against tears. “We’re not going to just… never see each other again, though, right? Because I don’t - I don’t want that.” 

Despite the pain he was feeling, the sense of loss and grief, Sokka crossed around to the other side of the table and gathered her into his arms. The hug felt different than the thousands they had shared before, more final. When he let go of her, he put his hands on her shoulders and stared down at her. 

“No, of course not. Suki, we might not be meant to be, but you’re not getting rid of me that easily,” he said. She nodded and leaned up to kiss him once more. It tasted like her tears and that unique flavor that was all her. He would miss that. When she pulled away he sighed and turned towards the door. 

“I’m going to go stay with one of the gang,” he said, “give you some time.” He paused at the door. “Bye Suki.” 

She bit her lip, eyes watery again. “Bye Sokka.” And he closed the door. 

*

Toph knew Sokka was at her door before she answered it, of course. It was late in the evening, late enough that Lin was asleep and she was just in her nightgown, her hair falling down her back. 

“Sokka?” She asked as she opened the door, the question loaded. He felt a little… off, but she wasn’t sure in what way. She had felt Sokka upset, angry, sad, elated - this was none of those things. It was almost calm, in a way. 

“Suki and I broke up. It’s okay, it’s for the best, but she’s at the house. Can I sleep here?” He asked. She was moving aside by the third word, inviting him into her space. Sokka took his shoes off by the door and made a beeline for Lin’s room, as he did every time he came over upset. Toph followed him, sensing through her earthbending that he was lifting the baby out of her crib and settling down onto the little couch on the other side of the bedroom. He snuggled Lin against his chest, not waking her, and heaved a sigh. Toph took it as an invitation. 

“You wanna talk about it?” She asked, sitting down beside him. 

“Not much to talk about,” he said, “we’re different now. We’ve been growing apart for a long time and tonight we just realized it. Come here?” 

It wasn’t that it was rare to see Sokka vulnerable; he was her best friend and they talked about everything. He spent more time at her house helping her with the baby than anyone else did, and they had a comfort with each other that Toph didn’t have with anyone else in her life. But it was still rare for Sokka to be so vulnerable that he asked her to go outside her comfort zone, which cuddling on the couch would be. Though he had never acknowledged that he knew what she felt for him, he always gave her plenty of space. Toph leaned into him on the couch now, knowing that if he was asking he needed it. Sokka sighed again and draped his free arm around her so the three of them were curled up together. He leaned his head down on top of hers. 

“I think it’s going to be okay though. I think it’s better this way.” 

And even though a little part of Toph wanted to think “Well yeah, now you’re free,” most of her felt for her friend. She patted his thigh and they sat there together until she felt her eyes grow heavy and his breathing even out under her cheek. 

When they woke to Lin’s breakfast cry, Toph took the baby out of the room - they had learned the hard way that just because Toph couldn’t see herself breastfeeding didn’t mean other people couldn’t - but she paused at the door. 

“You can stay as long as you like,” she said, then tried to convince herself she wasn’t running. 

*

He never left. Slowly Sokka’s stuff migrated into Toph’s house and he set up in her guest bedroom. As much as Toph wanted to be perfectly independent and not need help, she had to admit it was really nice having someone else around. She took Lin to the carer before work and Sokka picked her up after. He gave the baby baths, given that he could see where the little monster was grubby and Toph couldn’t. He got up with her in the middle of the night when he knew Toph had had a long day and he cooked for them both - it had never been Toph’s strong suit anyways. 

He never dated again either, that she could tell. He was home every night and unless he had something planned with Aang or Zuko or his friends from the Council, they spent all their free time together. 

She didn’t date either. She had found it harder and harder after Lin was born, and now she just didn’t see the point. She had Lin, she had Sokka, and she wasn’t sure what dating would give her that those two didn’t. Well - she did know what a partner could give her that Sokka wasn’t, she hadn’t completely lost touch - but it didn’t really seem worth it. 

Katara asked about it one day when she was visiting with her newest baby, Tenzin, and she spotted Sokka’s boomerang on the kitchen counter, left out from where he had been maintaining it the night before. 

“Sokka sure spends a lot of time here,” she pointed out, moving the boomerang over so she could put the tea pot down. 

“Yeah… he kind of lives here,” Toph said, rubbing the back of her neck. She wasn’t sure why they hadn’t told any of their friends about their new living arrangement, just that it hadn’t been a conversation, they had just sort of kept it to themselves. 

“He lives here?” Katara was remarkably calm, almost as if she wasn’t surprised at all. 

“Yeah… after Suki and he broke up, he sort of… moved in.” Toph was sure she was blushing bright red. 

“Are you two-” 

Toph cut her off. “No! No nothing like that. He needed a place to stay, and he’s so helpful with Lin… We actually never talked about him finding a new place.” That was true. They hadn’t ever talked about their situation, it had just sort of progressed. One day Sokka called the apartment “home” and she didn’t correct him. She had helped him register his change of address with the city. They told each other where they were going and when they would be home. They had collaborated on the new garden plots in the backyard. It sort of just… happened. 

Katara was quiet for a few moments, though Toph could hear her pouring tea and stirring in sugar. She brought the cups over to the table and set one in front of Toph. 

“Are you happy?” She asked. 

Toph didn’t have to think about it. This was the happiest she had been - but it was a different sort of happiness. It was calmer, quieter and kinder than the elation of winning Earth Rumbles or putting away a bad criminal. 

“Yeah, I am,” she said. 

“Is he?” 

She wondered. She thought so - he laughed with her a lot, he played with Lin and told the baby how much he loved her, he sighed with relief when he came home from work and never seemed to mind being around the two Beifongs. 

“I think so,” she replied finally. 

“Good enough then,” Katara said. 

*

Lin took to calling him “Sa-sa,” which made him eminently happy. Toph didn’t say anything, but secretly she loved the nickname. Lin was finger walking now, holding onto people’s hands and staggering about like a tiny drunk. She was as determined as Toph and Sokka was already loudly proclaiming that he wouldn’t know what to do with two Tophs once Lin was older. Toph had to bite her lip every time he said something like that to keep herself from asking if he was going to still be right here when Lin was old enough to butt heads with her mother. 

Lately she had been wondering more and more often what Sokka was to her. He lived with her, helped her raise her daughter, loved her daughter, and treated her kinder than any partner she had ever had. But they were just friends. Just friends, right? 

Then she came home after a late shift and was surprised by Sokka and Lin in the kitchen of their little home. 

“Ready Lin? Go to Mama!” Sokka cheered, and Lin set off on her chubby little baby legs, swaying madly across the room until she could face plant against her mother’s legs. Toph felt her move through her feet, the staggering, uneven steps bringing an incredulous smile to her face. 

“She’s walking!” She cried out, sweeping the baby up into her arms. “Lin you walked! Good job baby!” 

Sokka crossed the room in three excited bounds and tugged the two into his arms. He squeezed them and planted a kiss against Toph’s temple. 

“She’s been practicing all day,” he said, “but she only managed a couple steps here and there. That was the biggest run yet!” 

Toph was a little busy being distracted by that kiss. It was like it was sitting on her temple, tingling at her nerves. She shook herself. “That’s great! We should celebrate.” 

She could feel Sokka smile. “Take my girls out for dinner? Sounds perfect.” His heart sped up. She was pretty sure hers stopped. It felt like they were frozen, Sokka’s loose arm around her shoulders, the baby between them, the two of them blinking. 

“Your girls?” She asked softly, her brain screaming that this was a mistake. He was going to laugh it off, or - 

“Well… yeah. Yeah, my girls. Is that… is that okay?” His heart was thudding and she put a hand on his chest to steady him. 

“It’s okay,” she whispered. If anything, that just got his heartbeat going faster. 

“Okay,” he whispered, and they both stood in the moment for a little bit longer. 

*

After that things changed between them, but not as much as Toph might have thought it would. She noticed that Sokka touched her more, like he was very quietly courting her. He brushed his fingers over her hand when she left for work, and hugged her when she got home. He sat close enough that their thighs touched when they sat on the couch in the evening, and more often than not she ended up leaning into him. She found herself responding in kind - reaching out for him when they were out in a crowd, ruffling his wolf’s tail when she passed him sitting at the kitchen table, squeezing his hand when he brought her tea. 

It was nice and it was warm and it was more than Toph thought she would ever have. When they went out people assumed they were a family and told the two of them that they made a nice couple. They had stopped correcting that assumption. Even their friends, who still didn’t know what to make of the whole thing, had stopped asking and just started referring to them as “Sokka-and-Toph.” 

But it wasn’t quite everything Toph wanted. When he got up in the morning and brushed past her in the kitchen, his shirtless chest skimming across her bare arms, she shivered and her skin tingled. When they curled up together on the couch in the evenings all she could think about was climbing across and sitting on his lap, taking his mouth with hers. She hadn’t done it, of course, afraid to ruin what was easily the best thing in her life. But she definitely wanted it, and it was getting harder to ignore. 

As she should have expected, there came a point when she just snapped. They were getting ready for a state dinner at City Hall and she was going as Sokka’s date instead of as the Chief of Police. She knew they were going to get whispers from that, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. At the moment all she could care about were Sokka’s fingers threading through her hair, braiding it into some sort of arrangement that she couldn’t fathom. She just agreed to let him do what he wanted, and off he went. The feeling of his fingers against her scalp and the light tugs on her hair were a bit more than she could handle though, and his soft breathing against her neck, the warmth of his body just behind hers… 

“Are you ever going to kiss me?” She asked, and then reached up to cover her mouth as if she could will the words back in. 

Sokka stilled against her back, but for some reason his heartbeat stayed relatively calm. 

“I’ve been waiting,” he admitted quietly, his voice a bit huskier than she was used to hearing it. It sent shivers down her back. 

“For what?” 

“For you.” 

She dragged in a breath. “I don’t… what?” 

“You’re Toph Beifong, greatest earthbender ever, Chief of Police, inventor of Metalbending. I’m just Sokka. I didn’t want to presume-” 

She cut him off, turning on the stool she was sitting on so she could put her hands on either side of his face. 

“You’re not just Sokka,” she whispered, her heart threatening to beat its way out of her chest, “you’re everything. Just… everything to me.” 

At that he did kiss her. He pressed his lips against hers hard, a little bit of desperation seeping into the kiss. She responded with as much force, and when he tilted his head a little and swept his tongue across her lips she was ready for him. They kissed until they were breathless and then Sokka rested his forehead against hers. 

“I love you,” he whispered, “I have for a long time. I want this, you, and Lin, and this little family. I-” 

She cut him off again, unable to wait for the rest of it. “You have it. You have us. I love you, Lin loves you, we love you-” 

He kissed her again and they were quite late to the state dinner, but they hadn’t ever been happier. 

*

When Toph Beifong went into labor with her second child, Sokka was right there beside her, holding her hands and murmuring encouragement to her. When the baby wailed its first cry, Sokka reached out and took her from Katara. 

“She’s perfect, Toph. Ten fingers, ten toes, green eyes, my hair. Perfect.” 

Toph smiled and sagged against her pillows. “Of course she is, she’s ours. Perfect.”


End file.
